Getting my ass kicked in the shed

My fathers birthday was last month and as the usual overly busy son that i am, i let it go by and did nothing for him, which is what he likes. But I told him I was getting him something even though he doesn't want anything. I told him I would rebuild his run down wood frame shed that we tried to rebuild but were interrupted by the world famous sets of hurricanes back to back and the following year again. We never got back to finish it and it was torn apart and water damaged as well as termites and age. So starting the first weekend of Feb I started work on it for him, he was there of course but at 72 he isn't really able to do too much, aside from be my helper and hand me things and nail when my arm gets tired. He wasn't to happy about how much damage was there and bitched and moaned about getting replacement parts but with hurricanes you don't take many chances allowing high speed projectiles to exist because you didn't build it right. You could easily destroy other things around it, like the house its at (his rental unit) much less a kill someone or worse. The roof was pretty bad even though it was new from 4 years ago when the hurricanes hit, it only had the tar paper when we were cut short of the finish and torn apart. So it leaked and the bugs ate it too. so I had to rebuild the entire front main wall and roof again. simple enough, but rough when you are doing 90% of the work and working with a grumpy old man (he is). He just wanted to get it done and move on, I wasn't about to let it go to pot again and was building it right this time as it was my work that was going into it and damn his ideas of cheeping out and cutting corners.

If you care you can click the pics for the HI-RES versions 4 Megapixel shots

So before he got there on Saturday, I went over in the early morning and started to remove the old shit roof. Everything on the East side needed to be replaced since it was so rotten. Started with the tar paper. I made him get the good stuff to replace it with, same as i did the year before when rebuilding my house. 30# not that cheap 15# crap.

First batch of old 15# paper, it was rotten from being exposed for those years and was not too bad to remove, just clawed it with the hammer. bought a new one for framing and roofing, a 28oz one, really worked well. I bought a new set of professional work gloves, with the grippy fingers, kinda like my mechanix gloves, I gave them to him as he was struggling with the OLD MAN garden type yard gloves. NOT a good idea, cant pick up shit with them. So he paid me the $30 for the gloves and paid me for the hammer too. I've learned over years not to say no. Makes him angry. He did get a new blade for the radial saw i brought, it was rusty and burned the first few cuts pretty bad. almost caught on fire. hahah

After I knocked out the first roof sheets, the beams were in bad shape too, water and bugs, will have to replace them.

Here you can see the top rail for the roof line, double beamed and worthless as it turns to powder when you hit it with the hammer. I cold crush it with my fingers. It was mostly termite poo throughout. Gross that its all falling on me as i was removing the roof.

Other end of the shed on same side, to right of previous pic, wanted to show the kind of water damages to the rafters and the roof sheets of plywood. Note the rot and mold on the wall in the corner. That too will have to go.

Same roof sheets after throwing on the ground, you can see the rafter lines.

This one was the worst of them

Up top, the beam with the wire is the one that was totally eaten away by bugs, they ate all the way around yet left vertical beams alone, strange things termites. Must have been old damages as I didn't see a single one alive or dead.

The last roof sheet before beating the shit out of it from below to knock it loose

Well here it is later in the day, been working a while and had to rest a bit, no time for pics in between sorry. I had to rest as after swinging hammer for first time in a while my arm totally cramped and locked up on me. My muscles were so tight I had to fight to keep my arm from curling up and my hand from closing. Not a good start but I took an Ibuprofen and it helped. After a short self induced massage and break I was able to get back to work without any more cramping.

It was getting later in the day, I got the Framing done after removing all the bad wood, much more damage that i originally expected, but i pushed on. So much for a few hours Sat and Sun. It was all day for both. Dad did buy lunch on both and took me out for BBQ on Saturday at the local joint, he was so tired. But, again at 72 and a pencil pusher, its no wonder. He doesn't do this kind of stuff much.

The new roof line and main beam, looks so much better. I'd honestly would have like to just rebuild the whole roof, but it wasn't bad on the West side, a few pieces of top rail needs cutting and replacing with braces. I will do that later.

The new wall studs and corner with the new hurricane approved bracing started on the corner. pretty damned stable if i do say so myself.

Another few of from above, the apex joints were bad too, so i replaced what needed it and added the same spaced short cuts in between the rafters on the exterior walls top rail, so in effect its 3 2x4 stacked with the rafters nailed to it all. pretty damned strong. I used southern prime pine and not that white board crap that you can dig with your fingernail. That stuff is pure crap and I cant believe people use it and don't realise how bad it is to build with. no wonder some homes just blow apart in 120mph winds.

My original base with the new corner, I used red bolts into the concrete when i put in the base years back during the first rebuild, the pressure treated base is still looking good and solid as hell, no worries there. A few braces and brackets later it was sound as a pound.

Well here it is the end of day two, late Sunday and i finally go the roof boards started and half the roof done, need to cut a few pieces of 3/4 to finish the roof wood. I was however pretty damn ass tired by then, my arm was giving out from hammering so much. Dad was having a hard time climbing the ladder to help. I kept telling him to go sit but he didn't want to. Stubborn old man.

I called in some friends to help hand me up the sheets of plywood, I sure as hell couldn't do it by myself and Dad couldn't either. Hell we couldn't do it together by then, I was ready to keel over.

Well here is the new rafters with the roof sheets on. Note my handy dandy bracketing for the hurricanes. That shit works, between the 3 inch nails at angle into the top rail and gap stops the strapping will keep the roof from lifting in winds. I did a better job here than my house.

Here's more to the left of the previous pic. My dads head as he pulled down the tarp to cover as we closed up for the coming week. That's the doorway. It was about 6.30pm on Sunday. He only wanted to go to about 2pm, yeah right. I got the major shit done. Had to go for supplies 3 times over the weekend aside from trip #1 on Friday night. Damn termites ate that shit up. That should have been replaced the first time but he didn't want to, i gave him no choice this time. He was pitching a fit all over the place, it was hard to work with him at times. But after 41 years I guess I'm kinda used to hearing it and tune it out. Just don't like it when it gets directed at me. That when i bark back and tell him to take a break.

Well that's what I have done so far, this coming weekend I was supposed to go to Orlando but looks like that isn't happening. I will finish the shed. Just a little bit more roof work and then on to tar papering the entire shed and the eve work, did i mention i HATE eve work? I am not into the hammering up it requires and hanging over roof isn't a choice as its a long eve. Then the final sheeting on the outside. Drywall and wiring after, but that's the simple stuff as its all just BANG and go. But I may have him hire out for that since its such a small job. I did the hard part. I should send him a bill hahahah. Why not? I bill him for the IT work I do for his company.

Managment vs Reality and getting the job done

It is said that Good judgement comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. But as we all know bad management never learns from mistakes since they don't know any better nor do they care. For many its not a career as much as its only a J.O.B. to them, the [i'm just here for the paycheck attitude]. I've seen it, you've seen it, hell we have all seen it including the ones guilty of it.

Bad management is rampant in this economy and it shows. Even today the news breaking of a wall street prostitute scandal. Granted it was from before the bailout but indeed why was the bailout required int the first place? Because when companies were busy paying $300,000 a year for sexual favors they were busy not paying attention to anything else they were throwing money at. When your eyes roll back in your head from the Ecstasy you don't have a care in the world.

What I am getting at is the penny counting ways of management to make decisions for the future of a company solely on the fact of costs. The costs now are not the issue as much as the way of doing business or solving problems which is where the problems are in our country from small to large and throughout the local to Fed level GOV departments lye. Stupid purchases can be eliminated first and foremost and is an easy quick fix for most companies but when you have problem solving issues that border on the absurd you have to wonder who the idiot was that OK'd he solution. For example: The typical stupid answer to an existing problem for many mangers is to replace entire items or personnel when its the way they were instructed that is the problem and not the human conducting the repair. It has been said that management ideals for repair responses are as such:
Client is standing there pounding a dead parrot on the counter, and the management response is to frantically swap in new counters to see if that fixes the problem. When that doesn't work they put in some sort of sound deadening material on the counters.
Its this utter nonsense of responses that wastes everyones money and time and in the end costs jobs when the company looses money for poor service.

I see the same thing all year long when a server or system goes down because the hard drive failed. The management thought that spending 300-1000 dollars back when they set it all up was too much to add to the expenses. So now that the entire staff of 50 people are sitting on their asses getting paid to do nothing. Then my hourly fees to try to recover the data and get them back up and running are added to the pot. The average drive recovery costs 800-1200 dollars for a simple data save of 1 drive under 250G. So there I am spending up to 36 hours to restore a server after a serious hard drive crash because of no backup of any kind. Yes 2 Days on site for a repair and all 8 locations where offline during it. I can't imagine what it costs them past my $3000 invoice for lost income from employee costs. So after all that what was the solution they agreed on? Tape drive, cheapest. Which has a major fail point, humans, required to change the tape everyday, I can bet it doesn't happen.

Short rant for the new year
just had to get that out there

like biscoff cookies, make your own

2 cups all purpose flour,

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon,

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger,

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

2 ounces good-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt or Baker's)

Red dye Colored sugar for dusting cookies

Combine first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar and butter in large bowl until light.

Add egg and beat until fluffy.

Gradually add dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Divide dough in half.

Flatten each half into rectangle. Wrap with plastic; chill1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 large baking sheets. Roll out1 dough piece on lightly floured work surface to 13 x 9-inch rectangle. Trim edges to form 12x8-inch rectangle.

Cut into (24) 4x1-inch rectangles. Lightly press miniature cookie cutter into each rectangle to make imprints (do not cut through dough). Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake until edges begin to darken, about 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack and cool.

Repeat with remaining dough piece.Working with 1 cookie at a time, brush imprints with melted white chocolate.Sprinkle colored sugar generously over chocolate. Let stand until chocolate sets, about 2 hours. Shake off excess colored sugar. (Can be made ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to1 week, or freeze up to 1 month.)

new pic

The downfall of my stability

Well here I am again sitting in my chair wasting my days away listening to internet radio and spending vast amounts of time in Second Life. But let me bring you back to why I am here. I rarely schedule off hour work especially on the weekends for my clients but sometimes its unavoidable. This past weekend was the exception of course and I required the 10 offices to all be offline while doing a server upgrade. As usual someone was there to let me in the building and also as usual I was to use the back door to leave after setting the alarm. The front of the building was closed with security shutters since they were closed. After finishing my work I gathered my items and headed out the back door. You know the type with the pushbar that locks after closing. It slam shut behind me and thats when I noticed the rear courtyard didn't seem right. There is a security fence that surrounds the rear courtyard that is a minimum of 6 foot and higher in some spots to almost 10 feet, it is also topped with razor wire. There are two exits out of the courtyard on either side of the building. One is a heavy wooden gate with razor wire on top and the other is a standard swing gate fence with the fork lock to a pole. Usually the standard gate is the access to the parking lot but this time I noticed there was a chain aroud the fork and a lock. This has never been a problem before. I walked to the other side to check the wooden door but it too was locked. I started calling the office manager since that was the only number I had outside of the offices themselves. But alas there was no answer this time. I tried a few more times and got nothing but voicemails. I called my partner that I share this client with but got no answer there too. I tried some friends and still got no answer, I guess they were all busy prepping for the oncoming hurricane Fay. At this point I was pretty much on my own. After pacing the courtyard for a while I dragged the courtyards picnic table over the gate and took my shirt and laid it on top of the razor wire. Knowing that I had just recovered from a previous leg injury I knew that I wasnt going to come out unscathed. Hoping for the best I removed all my pocketed items and put them down by the gate. I climbed up and was able to steady myself on the top rail using the roof line. Fearing the pain I was probably giong to feel I stalled for a bit trying to go through the landing and what I needed to do to limit the about of pain. I took a breath and dropped to the cement below. Whump, both legs giving out as I came down on my feet. I rolled as best I could to keep the momentum from breaking any bones. I hit the ground pretty hard but was able to keep my head from hitting the ground. After the initial shock was over I realized the immense pain I was in. My vision was blurry. I laid back on the hot cement, it was most likely 93 degrees out and it was 12.:30pm, the mid of the day. I laid there for a while pondering if I could even walk on my stinging legs. I rolled over closer to gate and gathered my things, keys, wallet, screwdriver, etc. that I had placed there before the jump. I struggled to get to my feet but was in quite a bit of pain. I crawled over the cement wall that was behind me and used the corner of the fence and wall to prop myself up to my feet. Left foot and ankle was in a huge amount of pain. I thought how stupid my recent actions where but all I wanted to do was get out of there. I suppose I should have kept trying to reach the manager or call the fire dept or police to bring a ladder or bolt cutters. In hind site that was probably my best bet. I creeped my way to my car which was conveniently located in the farthest point of the parking lot, but at least it was in the shade right? So was it stupid to have jumped, yes, did I want to wait in the heat of a courtyard, no. I tried to get someone over but was unsuccessful. So I was able to make it home in my car, which was quite a feat in itself as of my two cars I took the sports car to the job and it has quite a heavy duty clutch pedal. The left ankle as really hurting and made it difficuly to push the clutch pedal. I took the longer way home but it allowed for less shifting. I really just left it in third and did my best. So I got home and stammered my way into the house and finally made it to my bed. I wasnt really able to sleep. I checked out my legs and feet and no swelling had appeared after the first few hours. I got the nerve to try to walk and grab a soma and a darvocet to ease my situation, I dont like taking them but this was a good time to break my rule of drug free. I tried to walk and let out my dogs and it was really painful to do so on my left heel and ankle. Without any weight on it I didnt feel any pain. I thought perhaps I had broken it. After dragging my ass back to the chair here I felt a pop in the foot but didnt really think anything of it. The next time I tried to stand I felt no pain in the foot. This was a good sign. However both knees were in a great amount of pain compaired to earlier. After spending an amount of time in SL to kill some time I made my way to bed. I awoke Sunday and after my first step on my left foot I thought things were looking up for me. No pain in the foot or ankle just like last night. I moved out my right leg and put my weight upon the knee. down I went. Fast forward to where I started this thread. Its now been 2 days since and I have both my knee braces on. I have great instability in my knees. More so in the right one where any time I step wrong or give any sideways motion while on that leg I pretty much will go down to weekness or I will shift over quickly to the left and cause close to the same pain in the knee there. I am unable to lift myself onto my feet from a sitting or laying position without help of a wall or other stable object.

Depression VS Annoyed

I can tell you with all honesty that at this time I am in a funk of drepression, after all, my house has been under reconstruction for almost 2 years and yet its still not finished and today I find out that my self pulled permits have all been retired and now have to repermit the whole shibang, hell who wouldnt be depressed after that. I'm not the sort to be sucidial or wanting to off myself through any inaction so dont go worrying about me whoever reads this.

A few things keep me going through it all. Music, my greatest passion. Wether it be making it, playing it or listening to it, without it I would most likely loose whats left of my fragile psyche at this point. In fact as I write this I am using my Studio headphones, Sony MDR-7506 Reference series, {for those not wanting to spend over $100 they are great if you reach the point of "I'm tired of replacing all the crappy ones I've been wasting my money on or I want to get something decent for under a hundred bucks dept." If you can handle an additional 50 bucks there is a set by Audio-Technica that are getting super reviews in the recording industry, model ATH-M50, you just might throw the earbuds away or keep them for mobile listening only.}

Next up, HUMOR, I have to have it, I have to laugh. When I do watch TV I pretty much only watch comedy shows these days, I stay away from all forms of drama shows. Perhaps after I grow out of this funk i will take on some drama types.

SECOND LIFE, it's a bit of an escape really. SL keeps me engaged with others even though I am not going out and socializing much in RL due to my physical ailments I still feel an interacton with others. Besides, most of the people I have met are really nice and am happy to call them friends. Though I have had my share of DRAMA in SL, wether it stems from bad jokes gone ary, jealousy or misread (misunderstood) text that cannot represent the true emotion that's behind them to the people that are reading it, seems there is no way to eschew from it. Even with the minor drawbacks I can still find ways to employ SL as my savior from the ho-hum of dreary TV most nights. I do what I can to keep my head above the waters mentally and do well most of the time. In fact there are times I can dry off for days here and there.

I guess the last thing is my drive to be triumphant in all that I do. I don't like to be beaten. It's not always about being first, mostly it's a one on one deal. It''s me versus a goal or the like. Especially when it comes to my work/company. When dealing with a problem I don't want to give up, I can't give up, there is always a solution. Although sometimes that solution is start over or move to something else that actually works, ie software, hardware etc. I apply this ideal to most of my daily activites.

The Annoyed part:

Lately I have noticed how easily and how often I feel annoyed about things. Just about anything really, from failures of my own accord to the gormless people that litter the earth. I seem to have a sensitivity to the later and find that others self inflicted stupidity is an epidemic in America especially where I live. All this free education and it's wasted. I have a very low allowance for people who act as such and become easily discomposed when I am a witness to such behaviors. It doesn't take much to educate yourself daily or take notice of the world around you. I'll say I'm am bit intolerant of stupid people. It sets me off pretty quick. And no it's not the stupid as in the challenged meaning, it's the ones who don't care to better themselves or learn when they are perfectly capable. I dont get mad when I meet the mentally challenged. I really don't know where it comes from, it just happens. Of course I am my biggest critic when it comes to this. If I find myself doing or having done something (stoopid) I get upset at myself rather quickly. I feel I am better than that and it shouldn't happen, I am human, despite what others think, and I have my faults, but hating meyself for a self fault is usually not a good thing, but I have learned to cope with my self anger, to control it better. As for my anger towards others being stupid, I often wonder if it stems from my holding everyone in high reguard from the start, I feel greatly disapointed that if something that seems so easy to me can befuddle someone else so greatly and not be do the right thing. I start to get angry because of others failures to understand as I do. Or it might be that I expected too much, I belived they could handle it but indeed it may not have been true. I find however that most just dont bother to try and that's what gets me started on the path of annoyance.

Thats about all I have time for today, a little incite to the person behind the avatar. I have to go take care of a friends house while they are away. At least I have my super duper laptop to run SL on their wireless network for the next half a week. Seeing this animal sitting is just another reason I am not going to replace my animals when they pass this time, at least not for a while anyways. Freedom to leave all behind and have mini vacations over the weekend without having to find someone to cover the feed and fecal issues when you go away. Since starting my business I have not had a chance to leave for a real vacation since 2004's run to Cedar Point. Yeah, I'm a coaster nut, but am affraid my recent injury proneness will leave me unable to ride.

you may know my confusion

I am totally confused as to why they call it Piccadilly Circus, there are no clowns and no tents much less animals..

Im still worried about the baggage retrieval at heathrow..